


I carried the kid to the hospital

by PeterHaleforAlpha



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: M/M, One Shot Collection, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25169812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeterHaleforAlpha/pseuds/PeterHaleforAlpha
Summary: This will be a One Shot Collection of little fics. I hate to upload short stuff on its own so I just put them together in a Collection. This will all be Duke and Nathan as kids or teenagers. Nothing shippy so far but will change the tags if someday that should change.
Relationships: Duke Crocker & Nathan Wuornos
Comments: 21
Kudos: 8





	1. Lost key

Duke looked one more time at the key in his hand before gripping it tightly and then shoving it back into his pockets. He took a deep breath and picked up some little stones from the ground. With delicate aiming he threw them right at Nathan’s window. He saw the light still in his room so he would be awake. After a few tries Nathan opened the window and looked out. He had a confused look on his face when he spotted Duke. “Duke? What are you doing here?”  
  
“Is the Chief home?”  
Nathan shook his head. “Night shift. He won’t come back home till tomorrow morning.”  
Duke sighed relieved. “Can I crash here?”  
Nathan hesitated a few seconds before he finally nodded. “Wait. I’m coming down.”  
  
A minute later Nathan opened the front door and let Duke in. Normally he wouldn’t have bothered Nathan but it was cold and it looked like it was about to rain. Duke didn’t want to spend the night out in this kind of weather.  
  
“Why aren’t you sleeping home?”  
“I lost my keys,” he lied his ass off, completely aware of them in his pocket.  
Nathan watched him intently but didn’t say anything more on this topic. He only nodded and lead Duke to his room. Duke had been here before. It wasn’t the first time that he spend the night here but Duke tried to keep this option to a minimum. He didn’t want Nathan to know what was actually going on. That Duke couldn’t go home when his father was in a bad mood like this.  
  
“You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”  
Duke shook his head immediately. He wouldn’t take Nathan’s bed, not when he was just an intruder to his personal space. “I can sleep on the floor.” Duke had worse. Far worse. “I’m just glad that you let me stay.”  
  
“Your father’s not home?”  
Duke lied again and shook his head. “He is on a business trip and won’t be home for a few days. So I can’t get into the house.”  
Nathan watched Duke again with this intense stare but just laid down on the bed. He didn’t offer him any clothes or insisted to sleep on the floor. Apparently he had learned from Duke’s latest visits and knew that Duke didn’t want any of these. He just wanted a warm place to sleep.  
  
Nathan turned off the light. “You know you can tell me the truth, no matter what it is,” he whispered into the dark.  
Duke’s heart skipped a beat and for a second he was tempted to tell him everything but he reminded himself that this wasn’t a good idea. Nathan would only tell his father and make everything worse. “There is nothing to tell,” he therefore said and turned around, pretending to fall asleep.


	2. Pins

Nathan swung around when he heard the door squeak. When he saw that it was Duke he only wrinkled his nose and turned his attention back to the mirror. At an impossible angle he tried to get the pins out of his back but some of them he just couldn’t reach.  
“Can I help you?”  
Nathan shot Duke a dark look. “Get the hell out of here, Crocker. Don’t need your help.”  
  
But Duke stayed where he was, crossing his arms and tilting his head. “It looks like you do. I could help you get them out.”  
Nathan stopped his efforts and turned around to Duke. “Why would you do that? You were the one who put them there in the first place, weren’t you?” Nathan didn’t see it properly but he was sure that Duke was behind all of this.  
  
Everything bad that happened in this school was Duke’s fault. He really made sure that Nathan’s school life was a living hell. No surprise actually, his father always warned him about the Crockers.  
  
“ _Don’t get too close to this kid_ ,” his father had told him over and over again. And Nathan didn’t plan to. He only got pranked when he did. Duke couldn’t communicate normally. He had to make fun out of everything. Today Nathan had been the target. He was sure that Duke didn’t do this all on his own, he hadn’t been close to him long enough for these many pins in his back but surely Duke had put the other kids up to it. Nathan was an easy target and kids loved this.  
  
“I had nothing to do with this, promise!”  
“I saw you put at least one of them there.” Still, Nathan wasn’t entirely sure but Duke had been really close.  
“Actually, I tried to get those off of you before you noticed them.” Duke acted differently than usual. His normal loud and arrogant behaviour had vanished. It put Nathan completely off and he wasn’t sure what to think.  
  
“And now you only want to help me too? I shall believe that?”  
Duke nodded frantically. “Listen, I know I did some bad stuff but this prank was just cruel. Let me help you get them out of your back.”  
Nathan watched him closely, trying to determine if Duke was sincere or just messing with him. Maybe this was just the beginning of an even bigger prank. Nathan didn’t want to be the center of attention again, didn’t want the whole school laughing at him. He should probably just deal with this situation alone, take no risks.  
  
So Nathan shook his head. “Thanks, but I’ll be fine.”  
Cautiously Duke stepped forward. “I know you don’t want to trust me, I get it, but just let me help you. I don’t want anything in return.”  
The sincerity in Duke’s voice confused Nathan completely. “But you don’t even like me…”  
Duke shrugged. “Maybe not, and you don’t have to like me either. I can still help you though. You don’t need to like someone to help him. You don’t even have to trust him. But you can still help him.”  
  
For several seconds Nathan just stared at him, until he finally nodded. “Okay.” Nathan turned around, showed his back to Duke and leaned on the sink in front of him, watching Duke closely through the mirror.  
Duke worked in total silence and Nathan kept quiet as well. Only when Duke was finished he smiled at Nathan. “All out.”  
“Thanks,” he whispered and looked at Duke. This was weird. They had barely talked on a friendly basis before. Nathan had no idea how he should deal with it.  
“Don’t worry,” Duke said with a wicked grin. “We can still hate each other tomorrow.”  
Nathan smiled and nodded. “You can bet on it.”


	3. Detention

Duke grabbed a chair and put it right next to Nathan, sat down on it with the back to his front, leaning his arms on it. “Hey, I’m sorry, man,” he said again.

Nathan turned away from him. “Just let me be, ok?”

“It’s not so bad. One detention and then you’re free to go. I’m here almost every week.”

“Yeah, I’m not a loser like you, ok?”

Duke swallowed hard, pretended that he didn’t hear that right now. Nathan was angry and he had every right to be. It was Duke’s fault that he landed here today. “It’s really not so bad. Half an hour and you can go home.”

“You know that the Chief will kill me, right?”

“He’s never home, Nate. You’re always alone when you come back from school. He’ll never know.”

“Oh, he will. He’s friends with the principal. He probably already knows.”

Duke fell silent. Somehow he was jealous. At least Nathan’s father cared if he fucked up or not. His father was already gone and his mother didn’t give a damn about him or what he was doing. She was barely home anyway. Sometimes Duke wondered if she even knew he existed.

“Pin it on me then. It was my fault anyway, right? And he hates me. He won’t question it. He’ll just forbid you to see me again. Like he always does.”

Nathan shook his head. “Doubt that this will work this time.”

“Want me to come with? Explain it to him? I’ll do that. I’ll also take the punches.”

“Don’t want that,” Nathan mumbled.

“Hey, I can take it. No big deal. If it means the Chief won’t be mad at you, I’m happy to take the blame for that.”

“But I don’t want him to punch you. I’ll deal with it on my own.”

“Nate, really, it’s no prob-”

“Duke!”

Duke pressed his lips together and just looked at Nathan.

“Thanks, but I can do it. I appreciate you want to help, to make up for it, but it’s not necessary. I was a part of this just like you were. You didn’t force me. It’s my own fault I’m sitting here right now.”

“But if I hadn’t convinced you,” Duke mumbled in a small voice.

“You didn’t. As if you could convince me to do anything.”

Duke dropped his gaze but raised his head again when he felt that Nathan had took his hand. “Sorry for calling you a loser. I was a little pissed. Wasn’t fair.”

Duke just shrugged. “You’re probably right. I mean I am in here almost every week. Only a loser would be, right?”

“You’re not a loser!” Nathan said more firmly now. “But you’re a really good friend.”

Duke smiled tentatively. “Thanks, Nate.”


End file.
